The spacers between the glass panes usually consist of one, two, or else more glass panes comprising insulating glass panes made of aluminum or steel hollow sections.
A spacer tape with a rectangular cross-section, frequently referred to as “swiggle strip,” is known from DE-A-30 02 904, and said tape, provided with protective film, comes from a supply drum or reel and is applied to a glass pane by means of a device that is equipped with a reversible head. This spacer tape based on butyl rubber is viscous plastic, and strongly adhesive (which is desired for a gas-tight connection first with the first and later the second glass pane of the insulating glass panes), but it has a strong temperature-dependent viscosity.
More recently, significantly less temperature-sensitive elastoplastic spacer tapes have been developed based on polyurethane or the like, which also have rectangular cross-sections, are more shape- and dimensionally-stable than the so-called “swiggle strips,” have a diffusion barrier, e.g., a lamination made of aluminum foil, on the subsequent outer side, and are provided—on the narrow sides intended for adhesion with the glass panes at the manufacturer's—with a thin coating of a strongly adhesive glue that is covered with protective foil until the spacer tape is applied.
A method and a device for applying such a spacer tape on glass panes of insulating glass panes that consist of at least two glass panes are known from DE-A-102 12 359.
A device for producing insulating glass panes is known from DE-A-103 50 312, and this device has a device for applying an elastoplastic spacer tape. This device for applying a spacer tape when insulating glass panes are being produced comprises a supply reel for the tape, several driven tape-guiding rollers, and a press head for the spacer tape that can move relative to a glass pane. In contrast to the state of the art, an elastoplastic spacer tape is used whose lateral surfaces are not yet coated with an adhesive. The latter is rather applied only shortly before the application of the spacer tape on its lateral surfaces. To this end, nozzles that are opposite to one another between the supply reel and the press head, which coat the lateral surfaces of the spacer tape with an adhesive, are provided.
Frequently, the problem occurs that an elastoplastic spacer tape, which is arranged as a spacer between the glass panes of an insulating glass pane, has to be deposited (applied) with another width if insulating glass panes are to be produced with air gaps that are measured in a different way. In the known devices (see above), this requires that the elastoplastic spacer tape is pulled out from the supply device (the application head), and a new spacer tape with a width that corresponds to the desired width (thickness) of the air gap is threaded.
This is a task that requires time, which is undesirable for modern insulating glass production plants, since short cycle lengths are already targeted for the sake of cost-effectiveness.
In particular, the problem occurs of elastoplastic spacer tapes having varying widths when multi-pane insulating glass (at least three panes) are produced and are to be present between the individual glass panes with air gaps of varying width.